'Frank Chin' (趙健秀;
pinyin: Zhào Jiànxiù) (born
February 25 1940) is an
American author and playwright.
Frank Chin was born in
Berkeley, California, but was raised to the age of six by a retired
Vaudeville couple in
Placerville, California. At six his mother brought him back to the
San Francisco Bay Area to live in
Oakland Chinatown. He attended college at the
University of California, Berkeley. He received an
American Book Award in 1989 for a collection of short stories, and another in 2000 for Lifetime Achievement. He currently resides in
Los Angeles, California.
Bibliography
Plays
★ ''The Chickencoop Chinaman'' (1971)
★ ''The Year of the Dragon'' (1976), the first play by an
Asian American to be produced on Broadway. ISBN 0-295-95833-2
Books
★ ''Aiieeeee: An Anthology of Asian American Writers'' (1974) (Co-editor, contributor) ISBN 0-385-01243-8
★ ''The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R.R. Co'' (1988) ISBN 0-918273-44-7
★ ''Donald Duk'' (1991) ISBN 0-918273-83-8
★ ''The Big AIIEEEEE!: An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature'' (1991) (Co-editor, contributor) ISBN 0-452-01076-4
★ ''Gunga Din Highway'' (1994) ISBN 1-56689-037-3
★ ''Bulletproof Buddhists and Other Essays'' (1998) ISBN 0-8248-1959-4
★ ''Born in the USA: A Story of Japanese America, 1889-1947'' (2002) ISBN 0-7425-1852-3
Movies
''The Year of the Dragon'' was an adaptation of Chin's play of the same name. Starring
George Takei, the film was televised in 1975 as part of the
PBS Great Performances series.
Documentaries
''What's Wrong with Frank Chin'' is a 2005
biographical documentary about Chin's life.
Frank Chin was interviewed in the documentary ''
The Slanted Screen'' (2006), directed by
Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian American men in Hollywood.
References
★ ''Kim, D. Writing Manhood in Black and Yellow: Ralph Ellison, Frank Chin, and the Literary Politics of Identity'' (Stanford 2005) ISBN 0-8047-5109-9
★ ''Goshert, J. (2000)
"Frank Chin is Not a Part of This Class!" Thinking at the Limits of Asian American Literature Jouvert
★ ''Hong, T. (1995)
Searching for Frank Chin A. Magazine
★ ''Richardson, S. (1999)
Lessons of "Donald Duk."-Novel by Frank Chin-Critical Essay MELUS
External links
★
Official site for the film ''What's Wrong with Frank Chin''
★
★
Frank Chin Papers at the
California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives